Spurred by the pressures of paper-based checking which is costly and time consuming for financial institutions, various electronic and computer based arrangements have been suggested and used in an attempt to perfect electronic funds transfer. Examples of electronic funds transfer techniques that have achieved substantial usage in recent years are the Automated Clearing House (ACH), Automated Teller Machine (ATM), and point of sale system (POS).
To eliminate the presence of a central computer in every transaction, there has been a trend toward off-line electronic funds transfer, that is, transfer of data between portable and resident units, with only periodic downloading of data to a central computer. Mareno U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,355 and Stuckert U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,837 illustrate two examples of such systems. However both systems present problems that have limited their widespread use. In Mareno, no exchange of funds may be made arbitrarily because the cards carried by each user, although having funds data storage capability, have no keyboards and require a special interface apparatus to be present at each transaction. In Stuckert, cards used with the portable terminals have no display; a separate portable terminal must be involved during each transaction. The user cannot continuously monitor his account, limiting the versatility of the system.
These problems and others were solved by Benton in U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,059 issued on Dec. 8, 1981, disclosing a modular funds transfer system wherein each user as well as vendor carries an identical portable module having a keyboard and a display. Funds are transferred between modules using a hard wire interface, and the account status stored in each module is updated following each transaction. In another patent to Benton U.S. Pat. No. 4,341,951, printed vouchers are issued by the portable module following each transaction.
The Benton approach was further refined in U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,414 to provide bidirectional optical coupling between portable funds data transfer modules, including a "hand-shaking" protocol that enables funds transfer to be completed only if a number of criteria are satisfied. These criteria include an identification check following keyboard entry by the user of a secret number and examination of the transaction amount to ensure that it falls within credit limits. In Benton et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,276, electronic funds data are transferred between portable modules either directly in a local mode of operation or indirectly, via telephone lines, in a remote mode of operation. Transaction records are printed by an outboard printer or downloaded to a central computer.
The systems described in the aforementioned Benton et al. patents are capable of having a substantial impact on the manner by which financial transactions are carried out, securely transferring funds between buyers and sellers while simultaneously printing supporting documents. However, considerable dedicated apparatus including a modem and printer as well as portable modules are required to implement these systems. In copending application Ser .No. 236,614 to Benton et al., filed Aug. 23, 1988 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,325, there is described a modification to and implementation of a conventional facsimile machine to be operative in a transaction mode of operation for carrying out transactions between buyers and sellers.
While generally satisfactory, this Benton et al. system requires modification of existing facsimile machines to interface with the integrated circuit memory modules carried by authorized users. System implementation would be substantially simplified if electronic funds transfer could be carried out through conventional, unmodified facsimile machines. It would also be preferable to clear transactions at the ACH in real time, on line, in a manner consistent with existing funds transfer protocols. Such a system is described in Benton copending application Ser. No. 298,348, filed Jan. 17, 1989 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,981.
The Benton system in the '348 application provides a method and system for carrying out electronic funds transfer in real time, via conventional, unmodified facsimile machines using existing electronic funds transfer protocol. In accordance with one aspect of that system facsimile machines located at the sites of the parties to a transaction, e.g., buyer and seller may transmit the contents of a document in bit mapped form to a facsimile machine located at or near a central facility such as an automated clearing house (ACH). The system includes special transaction vouchers to be sent by facsimile by the buyer and seller to the ACH for clearing. Each voucher has particular regions containing pre-printed information and other regions to be filled in for each transaction including the amount of the transaction. A character reader associated with the facsimile machine at or near the ACH reads the various regions of the images of the transaction vouchers received by facsimile, formats the images into data recognizable by the ACH and supplies the data to the ACH for transaction clearing.
The ACH stores personal identification numbers (PINs) of parties authorized to carry out financial transactions and compares the personal identification number provided by each party with the stored personal identification numbers to determine whether the parties are authorized to transact within the system. Also stored are account data associated with parties authorized to carry out financial transactions. The ACH compares the amount of each requested transaction with the stored account data to determined whether a requested transaction is authorized.
The ACH sends to the parties, via facsimile, printed reports providing transaction summaries. A first report, following confirmation by the parties that a requested transaction should be carried out, summarizes the details of the pending transaction. Another report is sent to the parties that in effect is a hard copy invoice of the transaction. From time to time, the ACH also sends by facsimile to all authorized users of the system a summary of their account activity.
Other features of the electronic fund transfer system of the '348 application are described in detail in that application which is incorporated herein by reference.